Elysium Trio

Elysium Trio: William Suwandi, violin, Celine Chen, piano; Phillip Suwandi, cello

William Suwandi (16) is a junior at West Ranch High School. He has been playing violin since he was 7 years old, and had the opportunity to study with Paul Lee and Sam Fischer, and currently takes lessons with Ji Young An. William has won 1st place at the American Protege Concerto Competition, which gave him an opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall. He has also received awards in competitions such as MTAC Southern California Junior Bach Festival, Bach Competition at Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra & Master Chorale, Southwestern Youth Music Festival, MTAC VOCE Competition, Satori Strings Contest, Southwest Bach Festival, Great Composer International Competition, and Enkor International competition.  He has been awarded the MTAC branch honors of the past four consecutive years. William has performed with the Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra as a soloist, and has participated in solo masterclasses with distinguished artists such as Vijay Gupta, Margaret Batjer, Franklyn D’Antonio, and Suli Xue. He has recently won a concerto competition and will perform as soloist with the Philharmonic CSUN Youth Orchestra in March.

Celine Chen (15) began playing piano at the age of 4 and has won countless accolades, including the Glory International Music Competition, the Los Angeles Young Pianist Competition, the Glendale Piano Competition, the Satori Young Piano Competition, the CAPMT Romantic Competition, the CAPMT Contemporary Music Competition, the CAPMT Honors Competition, the MTAC Scholarship Competition, the Southwestern Young Music Festival and the International Music Talent American Protege Competition, which allowed her to perform at Carnegie Hall. Last year, Celine won the Gail Newby Concerto Competition, was a Gold Medalist at the Complete Works Bach Festival, and was a finalist at the MTNA National Competition. Recently, she received top prizes from the Enkor International Music Competition, the International Grande Music Competition, the Paris Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition, and the Finland International Music Competition, which invited her to an intensive piano lesson with Steinway Artist Elena Nesterenko. Last summer, Celine had the opportunity to tour various cities in Europe as a debut artist, participating in masterclasses with Petr Jinkovsky and Avedis Kouyoumdjian. She is also a flutist and is currently a member of the Colburn Orchestra.

The Elysium Trio has won 2nd place at the Enkor International Competition and was a finalist at the PCM Chamber Music Competition.

Phillip Suwandi (18) is a freshman at Northwestern University under the guidance of Hans Jorgen Jensen and has studied with Beth Park and Andrew Cook. He had the privilege of participating in masterclasses with John Waltz, David Garret, Sung Won Yang, Ben Hong, and Johannesburg Kerbs. Phillip has received awards in various competitions, including Southern Youth Music Festival, Satori Strings Competition, Los Angeles Violoncello Society Scholarship Auditions, Great Composer International Music Competition, and American Protege International Competition, which gave him the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall. He also has performed as a soloist with the Pasadena Summer Youth Chamber Orchestra and Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra. Phillip was a member of the American Youth Symphony, and, with JCM, he has had the opportunity to Honor Tour at Prague, Vienna, and Budapest.